I dont spend a lot of time talking about Basketball here, mainly because it really isnt my sport to collect. A main reason is that Panini’s exclusive has huge ups and downs of the way the cards eventually turn out set by set, and it takes away from any interest I have. I think if Upper Deck was still involved, with Jordan and Lebron, I would have more interest in covering the day to day, but their departure in 2009 has been a huge loss for the sport.
Panini has tried to reclaim some of what left with the creation of Flawless, which has been somewhat successful in creating an ultra high end market. Last year’s version wasnt all that successful after the inagural set the ball in motion, but this year looks different with Wiggins and Parker to carry the set
. Adding in USA Basketball is a similarly good idea, and its going to be interesting to see if collectors react well to it.
Since its release, it has had some very clean and simple designs that look really good:
2012-13 Flawless Kyrie Irving Auto Patch RC BGS 9.5
2013-14 Flawless Stephen Curry Jumbo Patch Auto BGS 9.5
2012-13 Flawless Kobe Bryant Dual Patch Auto
2013-14 Flawless LeBron James Jumbo Patch Gold
I want to pay close attention to the set, because the potential that some of these designs end up in Football is a really good thing. They look clean and sleek, and though there are some really confusing cards that look horrendous, the sell sheet looks damn good. Im still not convinced that Panini will get off their ass to actually produce a good football set this year, especially after the set under-performed in 2014. Maybe this year, the distributors wont try to jack up the MSRP well above where it was supposed to be, like they did last year.
I really like the base autos, and the jumbo patch autos also look really good. I am a huge fan of white background and minimal embellishments, letting the player stand out against the card front with a big bold signature. I also like when the patch is 1×2 instead of a square, as it gives a lot more space to play with. All of these things look to be in play for this set.
As for the multi signed cards, I dont get why Panini seems to haphazardly place players on in the places they do. It looks to confuse everyone as to where they should look, including the players themselves when signing the cards. The designs get cluttered, as we saw in Immaculate, which had some of the most terrible multisigned cards I have seen in a while.
Personally, I dont really like the ridiculous price tag that graces the boxes of Flawless out there. Without Jordan and without Lebron, it seems like those holes create enormous gaps in what could be done with a product like this. Taking out logos and other insane cards that could be possible is an even worse idea, making Immaculate look like the far superior product. To date, Flaweless has rarely offered any type of unique content that wasnt available other places, and that should NEVER fucking happen when a box costs more than 1000 per. There needs to be some crazy chase cards
, and flawless rarely delivers that. Sure the cards look nice, but its basically everything you find in NT or other sets, but at 5-6x the box price.
Just thinking about what Exquisite would have delivered with this kind of budget is really a crazy thought, and I resent Panini for doing it this way instead. Shame on them.
As you said, the sell sheet on 2014-15 Flawless Basketball looks really good and I look for these designs to continue with 2015 Flawless Football. Panini may even improve on the Flawless Basketball designs you don’t like when 2015 Flawless Football hits the drawing boards. Singles buyers, box busters, retailers should all be happy with 2014-15 Flawless Basketball and 2015 Flawless Football.
As far as price is concerned, there is an obvious demand for high-end product and price to the consumer is ultimately determined by the consumer. In 2014 the retailer saw more products that lost money than made money. If a product does not perform well, retailers and distributors are forced sell existing inventory at a loss. If a product has high demand, the price will increase because all of us who buy and sell cards for a living have to make money where we can or join the many hundreds of card shops which went out of business in the last 20 years. Same holds true for the distributors.
I disagree with your comment that 2014 Flawless Football under-performed. Retailers initially bought 2014 Flawless Football from Panini/distributors for $800 per box and sold it for about $1200. A current search of the internet shows 2014 Flawless Football retailing for about $1500. That is about as good as it gets from a retailer’s view of performance.
2013-14 basketball performance was limited by a poor-to-marginal rookie class. The 2014-15 rookie class may be the best since 2003-04…….. or at least as good as 2012-13. The supply & demand relationship quickly brought 2012-13 Flawless Basketball box price to a $2500 level where it has stayed for over a year.
Is Immaculate a better brand than Flawless? That’s like asking me which kid l love more. Flawless is much more limited in production and every card is numbered to 25 or less. Immaculate has 6 cards per box while Flawless has 10. Immaculate has about 2 Autographs per box while Flawless has 7 Autographs. But then, Flawless costs much more. They both look great and the consumer will decide the performance. And, I love all six of my children equally.
Charlie – I know its in your best interest to be friends with Panini, but I think you are twisting things when you say 2014 didnt under perform. Look at singles prices and look at how far that cards have come down. Performance in your store is subjective vs across the nation, where the general consensus is that Flawless was nice, but should have been much nicer for what BO and DA eventually set the price at. I cant fault Panini for their retailers stupid price tag variance from the suggested MSRP, but collectors see it that way.
Currently, the online retailers dont have any Flawless on their site, if not only because it was a short run. It was being offered at a discounted price as the main guys closed out 2014 products when 2015 started to hit. Searching on eBay isnt really a good representation.
If you search completed listings, you can see that cases are selling below 2400, which is much less than 1500 a box. Even that I would say is more representative of the amount of product available than what you can actually get out of those boxes.
Things may bounce back after the start of the season, but as stated many times before – Flawless wasnt what it should have been for the price the boxes were set at. This isnt a debate about 2014 Flawless Football, but I would argue that Flawless basketball fits into a pretty similar position in the market place.